La Crosse Kmart building coming down, development group holding public engagement meet

It looks like the old Kmart in La Crosse is coming down.

That’s what Jeremy Novak, the development director of Three-Sixty Real Estate Solutions said Monday on La Crosse Talk PM.

“The old building really is at the end of its useful life,” Novak said during the show. “Trying to repurpose that into something new and fresh for the next two, three generations is probably not feasible, so the plan is that the building will be coming down here, hopefully sometime this summer. That’s the targeted goal.”

Three-Sixty is in charge of redeveloping the old site. It’s having a public engagement meeting at Central High School from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, where a logo and a name will be unveiled. It has often jokingly been called Viaduct Views on La Crosse Talk PM.

“So, Viaduct Views, the old Kmart, I think you could almost call it everything except for U-Haul, right?” Novak joked on La Crosse Talk PM. “The Blue Light Special, we’re trying to figure out how to incorporate that into the new design. I’m kidding.”

Novak said they’ve heard a lot of ideas for the site and hope more people will come forward Wednesday with their opinions and questions. He said he didn’t expect any national chains — like a Popeye’s Chicken, which was discussed during the show — to be part of the development and also nothing that’s going to harm the surrounding area’s businesses.

“We’re intentionally not going to put in businesses that are going to compete with existing businesses,” Novak said. “South Lanes Pizza just went in over there. … We are looking for a beer garden. 

“We think that, the project itself, one of the things we heard repeatedly was “People focused.” One of the things that people have shared is that it’s a little bit of a food desert for restaurants.”

While they will unveil a name and logo Wednesday, Mayor Mitch Reynolds last week may have jumped the gun in his State of the City address with the name already.